Book Description

"Of chief interest to mathematicians, but physicists and others will be fascinated ... and intrigued by the fruitful use of non-Cartesian methods. Students ... should find the book stimulating." — British Journal of Applied Physics This study of many important curves, their geometrical properties, and their applications features material not customarily treated in texts on synthetic or analytic Euclidean geometry. Its wide coverage, which includes both algebraic and transcendental curves, extends to unusual properties of familiar curves along with the nature of lesser known curves. Informative discussions of the line, circle, parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola presuppose only the most elementary facts. The less common curves — cissoid, strophoid, spirals, the leminscate, cycloid, epicycloid, cardioid, and many others — receive introductions that explain both their basic and advanced properties. Derived curves-the involute, evolute, pedal curve, envelope, and orthogonal trajectories-are also examined, with definitions of their important applications. These range through the fields of optics, electric circuit design, hydraulics, hydrodynamics, classical mechanics, electromagnetism, crystallography, gear design, road engineering, orbits of subatomic particles, and similar areas in physics and engineering. The author represents the points of the curves by complex numbers, rather than the real Cartesian coordinates, an approach that permits simple, direct, and elegant proofs.